More than one million ethnic Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities are being held in counter-extremism centres, said Human rights expert Gay McDougall, a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, with reference to a report.
The member of a UN human rights committee has shown concern that Xinjiang region has been turned into “something resembling a massive internment camp, shrouded in secrecy, a sort of no-rights zone”.
Ms McDougall had further claimed that another two million “have been forced” into re-education camps for “political and cultural indoctrination”.
However, China has rejected the claims, saying “there are no such things” as re-education centres. A Chinese official insisted that all Xinjiang citizens, including Uighurs, “enjoy equal freedom and rights”.
Ma Youqing, a Chinese official claimed that “The argument that one million Uighurs are detained in re-education centres is completely untrue.” He further added, “There is neither deliberate targeting at a particular ethnic minority, nor suppressing or restricting the rights or the freedom of religious belief of the Uighur people.”